Mountain Orchards

I think we found a special little gem hidden near Kemptville! And if you haven’t gone this picking season you must go! Tricia and I heard from friends on twitter that they went to the Orchard and we thought it would be fun to take the kids there. So we trekked out last friday in a light mist of rain and we had Mountain Orchard to ourselves!

Mountain Orchards was originally established in 1932 with the majority of the trees being direct descendants of the original McIntosh tree, first discovered by John McIntosh in Dundela, Ontario, in 1829. Increasing demand and encouragement from customers over the years have prompted them to expand the farm to close to 25 acres with almost 10,000 trees. Mountain Orchards is amazingly run by the Lyall and Hobson families.

We started off in the corn maze and although we picked the shorter one, it still took us so long with the kids and got lost a few times! Both our boys loved it and played with the rocks and corn on the way as well as ran through the rows of corn. They giggled and laughed as they explored! I loved that it was wide enough to accommodate the jogging stroller. The mazes are great for any child that can walk as well as any adult!

There was also a playground for the kids consisting of a play tractor, big tractor tires and swings. The boys loved the tractor and were able to sit side by side to play with the big wheel and different levers! They climbed up and down the big tractor tires and loved playing in the sand around the swing set. Despite the spray in the air the kids loved the playground portion!
They loved the Hay barn as well. They had a huge area to play in the hay and cute life size cutouts to take pictures at. Owen didn’t want to leave the hay barn and when we were packing up to go home, he wanted to go back!
We also noticed they had a tent set up for used books for sale for . It was covered when we were there otherwise we would have picked up a couple kids books for a quarter each. I could see how crazy it would get with lots of people around the orchards, but there was definitely lots of room and lots to do with the kids there even on a week day.

After playing, we headed to their little bakery shop. I would have loved to sample everything in there. The pies looked Delish at $15 each, they also had homemade tarts. Trish and I fell in love with the apple cider donuts and a jug of apple cider made its way to our cars as well!

Despite the light rain, the kids loved it and we really enjoyed it. I would love to go back on the weekend when we can do a wagon ride and enjoy the buzz of the crowd as families go through the trees picking apples. It would be great for any aged kids and adults to enjoy the fall fresh air!